LAC
by waterlilylf
Summary: Which IS more important in life - love or chocolate? Some lucky people manage to have both. Yaoi. 3 4, 13x5, 2 ?COMPLETE


Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing. The LAC cakes were inspired by the Annam Gourmet Foodstore, in Saigon, which isn't owned by me either.

Note: This is dedicated to Dyna, as a very small gesture of appreciation for all the wonderful stories in the GW fandom. Thanks to KS for editing, as always.

Pairings: 3+4, 13x5, 2?

**LAC:**

'It's twenty past nine,' Quatre gave his watch a little tap to check it was working. 'And we still haven't had a single customer. What if nobody comes? We'll be bankrupt in the first twenty four hours!'

I grinned at him over the counter. 'If that hot guy from the florist's across the street drops in, like he said he would, I bet _somebody_ will come.'

'Duo!' My highly-susceptible-to-teasing best friend was blushing as he rearranged the magazines fanned out on the coffee table by the window. 'Just because Trowa's a florist doesn't automatically mean he's gay.'

'No, but the fact that he wears jeans a size too small, and I'm not complaining, just commenting, and the amount of time and gel he must spend to get his hair looking like that probably does. Plus the fact that he's always hanging around when you're here.'

'He's just being helpful.'

'Nope. I was here for three hours on Sunday, carrying in stuff, and he never even stuck his nose out the flower shop door.' I laughed. 'Bet anything he'll be over here this morning, though.'

'Well,' Quatre's blush stayed firmly in place as he peeked out of the window in the direction of Blooms Florist. So handy, having a potential boyfriend right across the street. 'He did say he'd try to pop in for coffee if he wasn't too busy. So at least we'll have _one_ customer.'

'We'll have way more than that. Howard said he'd drop by and bring the other mechanics, and your sisters are all coming, and they're practically a client base by themselves.'

'Yes, but we can't charge any of those people, after all they've done to help us,' he groaned. 'Oh, God. Maybe my father is right and we _are_ mad, opening a dessert café in the middle of a recession.'

'Stop that!' I waved a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip scones under his nose; even that enticing smell didn't bring a smile to his face. 'Quat, where's all that sunny optimism of yours?'

'I think the bank took it as more collateral.' He made a grab for the biggest scone and I whisked the plate away just in the nick of time.

'_No_! If you start comfort eating, we definitely won't make any profits. And it's going to be great! You're the one who wrote our business plan, remember? People need yummy goodies to cheer themselves up.' I absentmindedly took a bite out of a scone; Quat kindly didn't say anything. 'It's way cheaper to go out just for a nice dessert and coffee than a whole meal, but it's still a good way to indulge, _and_ we're offering the home catering thing, and the custom made cakes for special occasions.'

I was talking faster and faster, the words probably blurred by mouthfuls of scone and Quat eventually put one hand over my mouth.

'Just breathe, Duo, OK?'

'OK.' I swallowed the last bit of sweet, squishy, delectable yumminess, and smiled at him.

'Show time, Q. Looks like we've got a customer. Or one of us has, anyway.'

I had to give Trowa major points; he was carrying a bunch of lilacs, Quat's favourite flowers. Cream ones, in a mocha-coloured ceramic vase, to complement the colour scheme of the café. Florists know these things.

'Oh, Trowa, they're beautiful! Thank you so much.' Quat's the best person in the universe to give presents too; he goes all blushy and gushy as if he's never been given anything before in his whole life, and you've just handed him the one thing he's always wanted. 'You shouldn't have gone to so much trouble.'

'No trouble. You mentioned you liked lilacs and I wanted to get you something for your grand opening.'

'That's so sweet! Thank you! Now, what can I get you to drink? You can stay, can't you?'

'And something to eat?' I chipped in. Hey, the guy was heavenly, plus he was our very first customer. He needed lots of attention. And it wasn't like I had my own guy to fuss over. I gave him a long, appraising look. 'Let me guess. I bet you'd love our dark chocolate mousse cake. Quatre just made it.'

'Duo! Don't start that again!' Quatre's eyes lifted to the ceiling, got a bit tangled in the ceiling-high arrangement of cherry blossoms on the counter, and swivelled back to his hot florist. 'He's seen the film _Chocolat_ about a million times, and he's convinced he can pick out everyone's favourite dessert.'

Trowa laughed; I think it was the first time we'd heard him and we both pretty much melted. There's nothing like a serious, quiet guy suddenly loosening up.

'I'm actually allergic to dark chocolate. Just an Espresso would be great.'

'Sure,' I ended up getting him the drink, seeing as Quatre was apparently incapable of getting Trowa a drink _and_ drooling over him. 'But you'll have something to eat as well, right?' I cast an eye over our counter loaded with little slices of heaven and reached for the cake knife. 'You're going to love this one; lemon cheesecake. It's light and fluffy but has a nice zesty tang to stop it being cloyingly sweet.' I added a dollop of whipped cream and two spoons. Nothing like sharing a delicious desert to bring people closer together.

I'm speaking from experience.

'Quat, why don't you take Trowa upstairs and show him the roof terrace, now that it's all finished? He hasn't seen it with the furniture up there.'

They ambled off, Trowa admiring everything, and I got the place to myself for a few minutes. Then, the door swung open and our next two customers entered.

_Ding!_

Not that Trowa was chopped liver or anything, but _wow_! These two were serious hotties, especially the shorter Chinese guy, even if he did have an expression on that gorgeous face that would have curdled cream.

'Sorry, gentlemen' I threw them my most guileless smile and cut them off as they headed for the stairs, having ordered two coffees. 'The roof terrace hasn't been finished yet, if you wouldn't mind sitting down here instead?'

Well, I wasn't going to have two total strangers intruding on my best buddy and his new friend. A romantic café needed to have at least one of its proprietors with some romance in his life.

And I sort of wanted to eavesdrop. It wasn't like we were going to get rich out of their paltry order; they might as well provide some little bit of entertainment.

'It hardly matters, Treize. I can only stay for thirty minutes,' the Chinese guy said coldly, and then flopped into the booth nearest the counter.

Excellent for surveillance purposes!

'Ah, meeting your new friend again, are you?'

Ouch. I actually winced at that; there was a whole weight of nastiness in the tall guy's tone.

The Chinese guy's only response, though, was to arch one of those dark brows. Sexy; I always fall for those inscrutable Asian types. 'Actually, no. I have a work meeting. Not,' he added prissily, 'that it's any of your business.'

One of the tall dude's freaky eyebrows arched up. 'I was under the apparently erroneous impression that we were in a relationship, Wufei.'

Ooh, lots of big words.

Wufei glared at him. 'And I was under the mistaken impression that you trusted me, which you quite evidently don't.'

Uh oh.

'You haven't exactly given me much cause. You told me you were working late last night, and Une informed me this morning that you were seen out in a restaurant with a strange man.'

'Oh, I'm sure she enjoyed telling you that,' Wufei said bitterly. 'She's resented me from the very start. I imagine she was overjoyed to tell you she'd seen me with another man. I was working late; I told you I was meeting with one of our new investors. His flight from London was delayed and he hadn't had a chance to eat dinner. I suggested that we could look over the papers in a restaurant. If you'd given me a chance, before you started hurling accusations around, I would have _told_ you.' He stood up, reaching for his jacket.

'Since you obviously don't trust me in the slightest, I don't really see the point of this meeting. It was a mistake, Treize. Excuse me.'

This last was to me; I was standing square in the middle of the path, loaded tray in hand.

'No, excuse _me_!' I reached around him to plonk the tray on the table, busily unloading cups and milk jug and little spoons and napkins and two slices of our mocha gateau drizzled with espresso sauce. Well, they were coffee drinkers; they'd probably appreciate it.

'On the house,' I said hastily. 'You two are our very first customers; I'd really appreciate it if you tried it. It's a new recipe I'm just trying out for the first time.'

'He's not staying.'

'Please, just try a small taste.' I tried to do that thing with my eyes that Quat does when he really wants something; like he's channelling the pleading, vulnerable souls of a hundred orphan kittens.

It was wasted on this pair, because they weren't even looking.

''Fei,' Treize said very softly. 'I'm so sorry.'

Score! Wufei's anthracite-hard eyes mellowed a bit, and I took a few steps away. Not so far that I couldn't hear what was going on, though. Treize seemed to have things in hand; my work was done.

'I – perhaps – should have informed you that my plans had changed last night,' Wufei said slowly.

'And I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions.' Treize laid his spoon down with a clatter. 'Wufei, darling, I'm sorry. I should have trusted you. I should have known you'd never behave so dishonourably.'

'Yes, you should.' Wufei's expression softened, just a fraction, as he swallowed a mouthful of cake. 'I – I would possibly have reacted the same way, in your position. But those things I said, Treize…I didn't mean them.'

_Fade out to a kiss._

Well, no that didn't really happen. There was a moment when they gazed deep into each other's eyes, when I thought it might, but then they both realised they were in a semi-public place. And just smiled. They were holding hands when they left though.

It didn't occur to either of them to pay, either. Oh, well. I suppose you can't put a price on love. Doesn't pay the rent, unfortunately.

Except maybe in a brothel.

'We had customers?' Quatre bounced back downstairs, Trowa in tow. 'Oh, my God! That's so exciting! What did they have? Do you think they'll be coming back?'

'Um, maybe.' Why not? LAC could be 'their' place. The intimate, yet laid back, neighbourhood café with the sensitive, yet sexy, server. They could come back every year on their anniversary. We could make their wedding cake. Maybe one of them edited a gourmet food magazine and they'd showcase us and…..

'Duo. Duo!'

When I came out of my happy little daydream, Trowa was gone and Quat was waving one hand in front of my face.

'What fantasy was it this time?'

'Oh, it was very tame. Just that we're going to be stunningly successful.'

Well, it was tame for me. And way more realistic than the time I imagined finding the One Ring in a Halloween barm brack and using its powers for good. Or the dream I'd had that morning, the one I'd been trying not to think about.

'Of course we are.' Quatre wrapped his arms around me suddenly, hugging tight. 'We are going to run the best café in the entire universe, and we are live happily ever after.'

'I like the sound of that. So….what's going on with you and the fully fanciable florist? Did he ask you out?'

Quatre nodded, a smile on his face that stretched all the way across the road to Blooms.

'Cool! When?'

He shrugged, one hand playing with one of my cherry blossoms. 'Well, he suggested this evening, but I told him I couldn't leave you to do all the cleaning up so …'

'Winner, stop with the martyr act! And stop playing 'he loves me' with my flowers! Use your own! Now, I want you to call him and say you'd love to go out tonight, or else I will hurt you! Got that?'

'But Duo…'

'But nothing! You have got the Barton butt to check out! I can call in one of our new employees if I need any extra help, and it's not like I've got any other plans.' Or anyone else to carry out some plans with. 'OK?'

'OK, OK.' Nobody can manage a martyred, put-upon tone like Quatre Winner. It was somewhat spoilt by the gleam in his eye, though. 'If you absolutely insist.'

'I do,' I said firmly. 'You like him, huh?'

He nodded enthusiastically. 'I do. It's amazing how much we have in common. We both love gardening and travel and animals, and he has two Cairn Terriers which are my favourite breed of dogs, and ….'

'Yeah, I get it. He's perfect for you. Now, go and call him.'

I was still grinning as he walked off. Nice; one of us had a date. And as for me, well, I'd get to be the sole proprietor of LAC, which was pretty cool too. Our new employees weren't due to start 'til the next day. It was weird; I, Duo Maxwell, actually had people working for me. Well, sort of. We had a couple of students from the Sanq College of Catering, which Quat and I had both attended, who were going to be helping us out for work experience. For the first day, though, we'd wanted it to be just us.

We actually got fairly busy after that.

Quat's two baby sisters, Milla and Ariadne, shared a plate of chocolate Florentines, and decided the guy they'd both been fighting over wasn't worth it. His oldest sister, Iria, took a cup of hot chocolate and a muffin to the secluded little table under to the stairs, and cried quietly for a patient who'd died on the operating table that morning.

My friend Hilde turned up with a couple of people from her work, including the guy she'd been harbouring a crush on. They both fell in love with Quat's baked chocolate cheesecake, and found out that they actually had lots more in common.

Howard brought the entire staff from the garage where he works. Two of the younger guys ended up arranging a double date with Milla and Ariadne.

Howie himself got talking to another new neighbour of ours; the sweet lady who ran the boutique next door and who complimented him on 'his brave fashion choices'. For me, that was the high point. He'd been really lonely since his wife's death; it was nice seeing him make a new friend.

'It's really working!' Quatre enthused. It was a rare slack moment; all our customers busily chomping on chocolate goodies, and we had a chance to stand at the counter and admire our creation.

'I know,' I grinned giddily at him. 'We made this! All these people, having fun and talking and making friends; it was all our idea!'

We'd been planning it since college; our dream of having our own place. It had kept Quat going during his apprenticeship with the mad Belgian chocolatier, who'd been rumoured to use the life's blood of his minions to add unique tang and texture to his creations. And it had given me something to dream of while working in Tokyo for a pastry chef who fully expected his apprentices to commit hara-kiri if they messed something up. He'd had a real Samurai sword and everything.

And here we were.

'Duo,' Quatre said gently, and I just didn't, did _not_, want to hear what he was going to say next.

'It's OK, Q. Seriously. Some things just can't be helped.' I pinned on my best smile, knowing it wouldn't fool him for a second, but it wouldn't do for our customers to see me sobbing into the Sachertorte. Plus it would make it too salty.

It was stupid anyway. I'd achieved, pretty much, everything I'd always dreamed of. And if I didn't have that one special person at my side, well, that was just too bad for me.

You can't have everything.

By nine thirty, when I hung the 'Closed' sign on the door, it didn't look like we were going to have to worry about the business failing. It had been a pretty hectic night, and most of the customers had promised to come back. All good.

I'd toyed with the idea of calling in one of our new helpers and decided not to bother. It was late; it wasn't like I had anything else to do. And it was kind of nice having the place all to myself. I read all the chocolate-related quotes we'd stencilled on the walls, and played with the dimmer switch on the chandelier that one of Quat's sisters had passed on when she decided to redecorate and sniffed my cherry blossoms, remembering the spring festival in Tokyo the year before.

Suck it up, Maxwell.

By the time some moron knocked at the door, I was pretty pissed anyway, and when they knocked a third time, I was ready to chew them up.

'Can't you read, you freaking idiot? OH!' I flung the door open, and then froze, having apparently fallen into an alternative universe. '_Heero_? I'm not imagining you, am I?'

'No!' He swept me up in a hug that was warm and tangible and threatened to break the more fragile bones on my body. He definitely wasn't a hallucination.

'But…but I thought there was no way you could take time off right now, with your deadlines and stuff.'

He took my hand, leading me inside. 'I've been working eighteen hours a day for the past fortnight. I'm warning you, I could fall asleep at any minute.'

'I think I'll manage to keep you awake,' I murmured, twining my arms around his neck and putting my mouth on his, falling oh-so-gently into his kiss. 'Why didn't you tell me you were coming?'

'I didn't know if I'd make it,' he confessed. 'My editor didn't clear me to go until yesterday evening, and I had to go on standby for three connecting flights; I was stuck in Amsterdam for six hours with bad weather, and by the time we finally took off, I thought I'd just surprise you.'

'Well, you did.' I grinned at him. 'Your timing always did suck, Yuy.'

That was nothing less than the truth. I'd worked in Tokyo for two years. I hadn't met Heero until my last month.

A big Japanese merchant bank had been holding a launch to celebrate merging with an institution in Switzerland, and accordingly they'd wanted lots of chocolate-themed goodies for the party afterwards.

My scary boss had sent me to make sure his exquisite creations were displayed correctly, and I'd hung around for a bit, pinching free wine and canapés – Tokyo's an expensive place and I didn't get paid much.

The first time I saw Heero, he was standing beside the dessert buffet, eating one of my chocolate and hazelnut meringues, with crème brulé filling, looking like he'd just discovered the meaning of life. The first time he looked at me, properly, into my eyes, I knew just how he felt.

The only problem was that my work visa was due to expire, I had my flight booked back to Sanq and my best friend had already started drawing up financial plans for us to start making our dream happen.

'I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner.' He finally stopped gazing into my eyes, and looked around. 'This place looks incredible! I can't believe how much you and Quatre achieved in such a short time. I wish I could have helped you get it all ready.'

'It's OK. And you were sort of here in spirit; I've been sniffing your flowers all day. They're beautiful. How long can you stay?'

'Three days. Although I'll be working for some of it; I've an article to write on the Sanq Stock Exchange.' He gave me Inscrutable Smile number 11, which I knew by now meant he had something up his sleeve. Something apart from that gorgeous, nicely muscled arm which was firmly around my waist. 'And I've got an interview at the _Sanq Financial Times _on Wednesday.'

'Yeah? That's cool.' OK, I was only being polite; he only ever spoke to seriously boring people; bankers and CEOs and such. 'Who're you interviewing?'

'Duo, I'm the one being interviewed.' He hesitated, pulling me over to sit on the couch by the window. 'They're looking for a features editor on the Asian economy. I've already had a couple of 'phone interviews and I'm pretty much sure of the getting the position. If you think you could put up with having me around all the time?'

'Oh, my God! Heero, are you sure?

'I think we've done the long distance thing for long enough, don't you? I'd like us to have something more …. permanent.'

'Me too.' I kissed him again, because I couldn't not have if my life depended on it. 'But, God, 'Ro, have you properly thought about this? You'll be leaving your family and your friends and your apartment and everything.'

It wasn't like the subject hadn't come up in the past twelve months, when we'd both spent a fortune on plane tickets and 'phone calls. We'd known that at some point, if the relationship was ever going anywhere, one of us was going to have to move.

'Duo, my apartment is empty without you in it. It always has been. And part of my new job will involve travel between Europe and Asia; I'll be able to go home every so often. And who knows? Maybe one day you can open a café in Tokyo and we can go back to Japan.' He grinned. 'You could start up a whole chain of LACs across the world.'

'Mmm. That'd be fun.' It wasn't the most coherent of responses. Apart from the fact that he'd just totally rocked my entire universe, one of his fingers was tracing the swirly, chocolate-brown letters embroidered on my t-shirt, and the A just happened to be over my left nipple. A very sensitive part of my anatomy.

'Love and Chocolate,' I moaned, as his finger stopped its meanderings and began to concentrate on swirling little circles around my nipple. Quat and I had come up with the name years ago, reasoning that everybody needed one or the other in their lives, for perfect happiness. 'Which ….are you in the mood for right now?'

'God, you don't need to ask.' He pushed me backwards, sliding one knee against another seriously sensitive body part. 'I don't suppose there's the slightest chance of combining the two?'

Of course there was. Even though I'd known he wasn't going to be here, I'd made his favourite dessert, just like the first time we'd met. The night I'd taken him home and we'd discovered some very creative ways to eat meringues filled with sticky, gooey goodness.

Love and chocolate.

If you're really, really lucky, you can have both.


End file.
